also get one so you can get a Thai driver's license. After 90 days in Thailand you must have a Thai driver's license to be legal. If you are not fully legal no insurance will cover you if something happens. On the application check both boxes. You'll need three, one to purchase, and then one for motorcycle license, and one for car license. They are two separate licenses.
Before you come here apply for a type O visa based on retirement from the evisa system, if it is offered in your passport country, or at the Thai embassy/consulate. It just takes bank statement showing you have the equivalent of bt800,000, and with many of them a police report. With this you get a 90 day visa, giving you enough time, with the correct visa, to get a Thai bank account. Transfer in your bt800,000+ and after it has been there for at least two months you apply for your 1 year extension in Thailand at immigration. It is the easiest visa extension to do.
that only applies to the initial application. For yearly extensions 12 months of direct deposits of bt40,000+ a month from an overseas source also works, as I've been doing for the last 7 years.
There is no difference between embassies, and consulates about the equivalent to bt500,000 being in a bank account. What has been seen as varying is how long different embassies want to see that cash being in your account, with most going to 3 months minimum, and a few requiring 6 months that the cash has been in your bank account. They all only accept bank accounts.